Kirsty

Supporting a loved one with a life-limiting condition or through palliative care is hard on any family. It’s emotional and physically draining. But what about when the person with the life-limiting condition is a child? Your child. And in addition to supporting your one sick child, you must still love and care for your other children. And what about your job; what happens to that? How will this affect your financial situation? Sadly this is the reality for about 3,700 families across Queensland today.

And at the heart of one of those families, are foster parents, Paul and Gabrielle Quilliam, who about ten years ago fostered a little girl with a life-limiting condition. Among transplants and surgeries, they provided love and care, but the stress, emotional and financial, was great. They tried to reach out for support, perhaps some respite at a hospice, but no such place existed in Queensland.

That’s when Paul and Gabrielle made the decision to do something to change that. And that decision would be the conception of Hummingbird House – Queensland’s first children’s hospice and only the third in Australia.

Gabrielle recently shared their story at a TEDx talk which you can view here:

Hummingbird House has been created to provide world-class respite and end of life care for children with a life-limiting condition and their families, and to help families discover moments and create memories to last a lifetime.

Despite its small size and fragility a hummingbird can be radiant and bright. Many cultures believe the hummingbird is a symbol of love, the lightness of being and the presence of joy. In many ways the hummingbird is representative of the children who will seek respite at this new facility with their families.

Hummingbird House will offer tailored stays for children with life-limiting conditions, their parents and their siblings. It will be a holistic approach for the whole family.

Later this month, on Saturday 21st in fact, Hummingbird House will be having its housewarming gala as it gets ready to open its doors to the first families that will call it home. And this Thursday we say thanks to Paul and Gabrielle for their vision and leadership in making this possible.

Here at Fish Community Solutions we were most excited to learn the seven charities they have chosen are not your usual well-known organisations, but are small charities! What a great opportunity for publicity for these little organisations.

Image: Royal Family UK website

From the Royal Family’s website:

“Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill shown to them since the announcement of their engagement and are keen that as many people as possible benefit from this generosity of spirit. The couple have therefore asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion considers making a donation to one of seven organisations they would like to support, reflecting their shared values.”

The Children’s HIV Association (CHIVA) supports children growing up with HIV and their families, across the UK and Ireland. The charity aims to enhance the wellbeing of children and young people with HIV and to create a more hopeful and optimistic future for them, ensuring they achieve their greatest potential.

Crisis is the national charity for homeless people. The charity helps people directly out of homelessness, working side by side with thousands of people each year to help them rebuild their lives and leave homelessness behind for good.

Myna Mahila Foundation is a charity which empowers women in Mumbai’s urban slums, by providing them with a trusted network, where they are supported professionally and personally to help them grow as individuals and businesswomen. Myna offers women from these communities stable employment close to their homes, and breaks taboos around menstrual hygiene by offering women access to low cost sanitary pads and accurate information at their doorstep. Providing mothers in the community with these products helps them equip their daughters to stay in school. The pads are manufactured and distributed by women from these communities. The charity also empowers its staff through training in women’s health, English, Math, and life skills such as self-defence.

Scotty’s Little Soldiers is the charity for bereaved Armed Forces children. Inspired by the experience of war widow Nikki Scott, the charity offers vital support to children who have lost a parent while serving in the British Armed Forces.

StreetGames uses sport to change lives across the UK, helping people and communities to become healthier, safer and more successful. StreetGames uses sport to empower young people to kick-start a cycle of positive change in their own lives that resonates across their communities.

The Wilderness Foundation UK promotes the benefits and enjoyment of wild nature. Through the great outdoors, the charity helps build resilience in vulnerable teenagers, introduces rural employment to urban youth, and brings science to life.

From the website:

“Prince Harry and Ms. Markle do not have any formal relationships with the charities chosen. The couple have chosen charities which represent a range of issues that they are passionate about, including sport for social change, women’s empowerment, conservation, the environment, homelessness, HIV and the Armed Forces. Many of these are small charities, and the couple are pleased to be able to amplify and shine a light on their work.”

This month’s #ThankyouThursday is one from The Fish Chick archives. In 2014, Bianca experienced a life-changing stay at the Jodie O’Shea Orphanage:

Arriving at the Jodie O’Shea Orphanage last month wasn’t the easiest of tasks, even my driver got a bit lost. It’s in south Denpasar, Bali, and not at all in a tourist area, so I knew I was in for an eye-opening experience.

The Jodie O’Shea Orphanage was established in August 2005 in loving memory of a young Australian woman who was a victim of the 2002 Bali bombing. It reminds us all that even out of the most tragic events, truly wonderful acts of kindness and humanity can blossom and bring light to the lives of many.

I was here for almost a week, and most of that time sharing a room with two other volunteers, and I’m happy to say, I was in the top bunk! (A place I haven’t spent much time for many years!) My first morning I was awake about 7am, and I could already hear the kids running around outside. It was a Saturday, but they were already up and about, getting breakfast and ready for school. Some had already left to get to school for a 7am start! The 70 children here range from two years old to about nineteen, and go to nine different schools in the region, attending school six days a week.

There are some really fantastic volunteers spending their time here, including one very lovely young woman I met, Lauren, who is from London. Every afternoon from about 2-5pm they have activity time, organised by the volunteers. Some days we did arts and craft activities, including making masks, and other times we played games and even did some musical activities. Each day, the children have an hour of reading time, spent enjoying both Indonesian and English stories and, on a rotational basis, with an English tutor also.

The kids here are beautiful. Well looked after, they are given three nutritious meals a day, plus vitamins, and an environment that really is just like a big family. (Or an enormous family – with 70 other siblings hahaha.) Even the older kids that have left in recent years and started working come back to visit on the weekends, often staying over on the Saturday night. Like all siblings there is occasional bickering and tears, and often it’s the teens that are stepping in to sort out the younger ones.

I’ll be honest, my time at Jodie O’Shea’s was somewhat challenging, but an experience that while short, will stay with me forever. It opened my eyes a little more and confirmed that while there is hardship there is still much kindness in our world.

So this Thank You Thursday, I’d like to give a big shout out to everyone at the Jodie O’Shea Orphanage. Thank you for welcoming me during my stay. Thank you for the love and support you provide to such beautiful children. And thanks, most of all, to the kids who showed me that with big hearts resilience can always have a big smile.

The passion and gusto of young people can be astounding, but Canadian sisters, Emma and Julia Mogus, have so much enthusiasm for making a difference that it is nothing short of inspirational. The teenage girls founded an organisation called Books with no Bounds, in 2011 and have been helping Aboriginal Canadians ever since.

Later this month, on April 23rd, it is World Book Day so we thought it would be a great time to share this story about their passion for helping Canadian children living in remote reserves who are in need of reading material and education resources. An initiative organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), to promote reading, and publishing, World Book Day is in its 20th year. One of the reasons UNESCO decided upon this date for the annual event was because it was the date that William Shakespeare died in 1616.

Books With No Bounds believes that every child deserves the opportunity to read and should have access to an enormous supply of books. By providing reading material and other learning tools, the organisation refreshes the shelves of Aboriginal school libraries, community groups and organisations, ensuring children and teens have access to good books, regardless of where they live.

Now in its fourth year, the organisation has distributed 72,000 books to communities in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia and even as far away as the Philippines, India, Ghana and Uganda, Africa.

Books are donated by publishers, authors, schools, individuals and other organisations. They’ve been getting some great publicity for their tiresome work including this feature on CBC News:

This Thank You Thursday, we give a big shout out to Emma and Julia and their incredible work with their charity Books with no Bounds. Keep up the fabulous work!